Music: Shortage at La Scala

Milan's La Scala has been going for 171 years. And for most of that time
it has been one of the world's greatest opera houses. Its audiences had
heard premieres of the operas of Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini,
Meyerbeer, Verdi, Puccini. The greatest singersPatti, Melba, Caruso,
Chaliapin, Gigliall graced its stage. From 1921 to 1929, under
Arturo Toscanini, La Scala seemed to have reached a golden plateau. But
last week even the proudest Milanese were admitting that something was
very wrong with their great opera house.